World Book Day fundraising ideas that will raise money for your school and get kids buzzing about reading.

World Book Day is one of the key school events of the year and is celebrated in 100 countries worldwide. Essentially, it’s about bringing books and reading to life for children, with 15m book tokens distributed to young people in the UK every year. But it can also be a brilliant way to fundraise for your school, whilst promoting literacy and a love of reading at any age.

Here are 10 brilliant fundraising ideas for World Book Day that kids and families will love to join in with:

• Mufti days: the easiest way to raise money on World Book Day is a non-uniform day around a book theme. This doesn’t need to be expensive, and it’s a good idea to encourage parents not to spend too much on elaborate costumes. Perhaps a ‘most creative outfit’ challenge is a good idea; or you could get a creative parent to bulk make themed masks or another item that can be purchased on the day. You could even require that the costumes are home made, to avoid the need for parents to spend significant amounts of money, instead asking for a donation to come dressed as your favourite book character.
• Horrid Henry/Twits Breakfast: invite children to arrive early at school for a World Book Day themed breakfast. You can be as inventive as you like here – Willy Wonka’s chocolate croissants, green porridge, Enid Blyton’s toasted teacakes and ginger beer, etc.
• Bear Hunt themed treasure hunt: This can be as simple as a standard treasure hunt with clues, or a more elaborate teddy bear’s picnic-style event. Children bring a favourite teddy bear, and the famous tale is told during the fun.
• Tiger Who Came to Tea: Make jam sandwiches and chocolate cake to sell for an afternoon tea treat after school. You could even make this into a bake sale and ask families to contribute cakes to the sale.
• Stage a Fairytale show: Ask the children to vote for their favourite fairytale and put together a re-enactment, charging parents a nominal fee to come and watch. Great fun for everyone and a fabulous way of raising some funds.
• Sponsored read: Get children to read for as many minutes as they can over the course of a week, and ask for sponsorship per 100 words. This has the advantage of raising money whilst actively boosting literacy and children’s interest in books.
• Book quiz: Hold a family quiz afternoon with questions for adults and children around popular books they will know. Sell tickets and serve refreshments, adding a raffle for books donated by a local business.
• Hold a Bedtime Stories event: Invite children to come back to school one evening in their pyjamas for a bedtime story. Read different stories in each classroom, so children can visit more than one. Serve hot chocolate and cookies, and charge for entry to raise funds.
• Hold a Book Fair: Ask a local retailer to bring in a selection of books to buy, and donate a percentage of profits to the school. Ask for a prize of a box set to raffle for more fundraising.
• Organise a Book Swap: Ask each child to bring an unwanted book, and pay £1 to swap it for another that they would like to read, donated by another child. Like a literacy bring and buy!

Don’t forget: if parents pay tax, get them to complete a gift-aid declaration to earn an extra 25% on their donations.

Find out more about World Book Day here.

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